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Analysis Services 2005 Performance Guide
February 1, 2007 / 1 Comment »
The highly-anticipated Analysis Services 2005 performance whitepaper is finally here. I found a few things intresting glancing at it: This is a colossal work spanning some 120 pages (no wonder it took so long [:)]. The guide was written by the top architects on the SSAS team. It specifically references SQL Server 2005 SP2 probably because SP2 brings many performance optimizations to SSAS. The guide mentions a new aggregation utility (Appendix C) which you can use to manually create aggregation designs. Something to sure keep me busy when the winter storm hits Atlanta tomorrow...
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Dealing with UDM Configuration Settings
January 18, 2007 / No Comments »
Sometimes, you may need to have a configuration setting that is stored outside UDM. For example, you may need to store a connection string to a database that will supply the allowed set for dynamic security. As with SSRS, you can use the msmdsrv.exe.config file for this purpose like so: <configuration> <startup> <requiredRuntime version="v2.0.50727" safemode="true" /> </startup> <runtime> . . . </runtime> <appSettings> <add key="connectionString" value="connection string here" /> </appSettings> </configuration> This shouldn't come to surprise since the SSAS server process hosts a .NET application domain to execute SSAS stored procedures. Once the configuration settings are defined, you can read them with a single line inside a SSAS stored procedure: public static string GetConfigSetting(string settingName) { return settingValue = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[settingName]; // need a reference to System.Configuration }
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Kudos to Report Builder as UDM Client
January 11, 2007 / 4 Comments »
Its UDM support limitations withstanding (a partial list here), the Report Builder should definitely be on your list if your requirements call for ad-hoc reporting from an SSAS 2005 cube. Here are some Report Builder features that I particularly like: Ability to pre-filter the data on the report before the report is run. In comparison, Excel takes the optimistic approach to load all dimension members before allowing you to set a filter. This can surely send Excel in a la-la land if your cube has large dimensions (hundred thousand or more). Support of calculated columns. For some obscure reasons, the Excel UI doesn't have an UI interface for creating calculated members (you can do so programmatically however). Standard report look and feel. In comparison, Excel limits the user to the PivotTable fixed layout (assuming that the user doesn't convert the report to formulas). My Reports which allows the business user...
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Report Viewer Enhancements in VS.NET 2005 SP1
December 20, 2006 / No Comments »
As you probably know by now, Microsoft has recently released Service Pack 1 of Visual Studio.NET 2005. Since the Report Viewer controls are owned by the VS.NET team, it turned out that they have been updated also. Many bug fixes have been implemented. The new features include: Report Viewer ASP.NET Control Enhancements Reset method to reset the control to its default values. Both ASP.NET and Windows Forms versions ServerReport.Cookies property to pass cookies to the server (useful if the Report Server is configured for custom security). ServerReport.Headers property to pass custom HTTP headers to the server (useful if the Report Server is configured for custom security). New (currently undocumented) IReportViewerMessages2 interface for localizing additional menu strings that were not covered by the original IReportViewerMessages interface. Strangely, VS.NET 2005 SP1 doesn't update the product documentation (perhaps, the next edition of MSDN library will) so you need to rely on the online documentation. How...
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CTP3 Build of SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 Released
December 20, 2006 / No Comments »
In the spirit of the season, the SQL Server team give us the third (and probably last before the final release) CTP3 build (version 9.00.3033.0000) for the forthcoming SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2.
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SQL Server 2005 Samples and Sample Databases (December 2006)
December 9, 2006 / No Comments »
The December 2006 edition of the SQL Server 2005 Samples and Database is available for download.
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Losing Identity
December 1, 2006 / 1 Comment »
After installing CTP2 of SQL Server 2005 SP2, I started getting a rather annoying exception when attempting to launch the Report Builder. An application for this deployment is already installed with a different application identity. I've noticed that this happens when I run the Report Builder form a server that has CTP2 installed and then I run it from my local machine that doesn't have CTP2 installed. While I wasn't able to find what's causing ClickOnce to lose identity, the workaround I found was to nuke the Report Builder download folders as follows: Open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name>\Local Settings\Apps\2.0 Delete all folders below the folder except the Data folder.
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SSRS-SharePoint Integration in SP2 (the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)
November 26, 2006 / 4 Comments »
As noted before, a major SSRS enhancement in the SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 is integration with SharePoint v3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. After the RTM release of SQL Server 2005, the SSRS team has been hard at work to implement this feature. Starting with the newly released CTP2 build of SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2, the SharePoint integration mode is available for public review and testing. Here are my initial high-level observations after testing the SSRS SharePoint integration in CTP2. The Good Integrating reports in dashboards and portals is an increasingly popular requirement. It is obvious that the major design goal that the RS team has set up from the get-go was a seamless integration between SSRS and SharePoint. Many changes were made to the SSRS architectural stack to materialize this goal. The final result speaks for itself (see attached screenshot ). Once the Report Server...
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SharePoint Services 3.0 Released
November 22, 2006 / No Comments »
Download location: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/download.mspx Demo: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/HA102055631033.aspx
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Report Snapshots and rsReportNotReady
November 13, 2006 / No Comments »
Two very useful features of Reporting Services (version 2000 and above) are snapshot execution and report history. Snapshot execution allows you to cache the report execution. Optionally, you can keep the cached reports in history, e.g. if the user wants to keep a copy of the report for historical analysis. Once a report is enabled for snapshot execution, you can generate the history snapshot by invoking the CreateReportHistorySnapshot API assuming you need to do so programmatically, e.g.: historyID = managementProxy.CreateReportHistorySnapshot(reportPath, out warnings); However, if your code just calls CreateReportHistorySnapshot and the end user requests the report by clicking on the report link in the Report Manager or SharePoint (if the server is configured for SPS integration with SQL Server 2005 SP2), the user will get: The selected report is not ready for viewing. The report is still being rendered or a report snapshot is not available. (rsReportNotReady) This error is...
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